Trump in Mississippi for a midterm rally, and the Democrat he wants defeated is there, too

CORINTH, Miss. (AP) — President Donald Trump campaigned Monday in Mississippi, as he continues a closing midterm rally blitz that highlights Republicans’ challenges ahead of an election that could drastically shift power in Washington and statehouses across the country.

I’m here because Cindy’s doing great, but I just got to make sure. I can’t take a chance,” Trump told the crowd, his voice audibly hoarse, as he worked to boost Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing a surprisingly stiff challenge from Democrat Scott Colom.

Colom was spotted at the rally site, too, creating the rare spectacle of Trump’s staunchest supporters interacting directly with a figure the president would soon go on to denigrate as a “Marxist radical” and “fake” and “shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate” from the stage.

Mississippi, among the nation’s most reliably Republican states, is not where the GOP envisioned needing a late-October stop from the president. But Colom is one of many Democratic underdogs who have managed to expand the House and Senate battleground maps because of widespread voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump’s second presidency.

He said he had planned to go to the rally site to listen to what was on Trump supporters’ minds.